Dr. Sukant K. Mohapatra has over 30 years of professional experience with leadership positionat AT&T, Bell Laboratories and Ericsson as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in leading applied research and technology strategy in telecommunications industry. He is the founder chairman of the SM Charitable Educational Trust promoting National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), Institute Park, Pallur Hills, Berhampur, Odisha(www.nist.edu) and serves as the Chairman of the Governing Body of NIST.

Dr. Mohapatra has extensive publications in referred journals and conferences on his work and research interest in the areas of Next Generation Networks, 5G and Future Communications, Multi-Access Edge Compute (MEC), Cloud Computing and Internet of Things (IoT). 

Dr. Mohapatra is recipient of multiple awards and recognitions for his seminal contribution in research, technology and leadership,including prestigious DMTS award at Bell Laboratories, Distinguished Alumni Award from NIT, Rourkela,Distinguished Odia Award by Odisha Society of Americas (OSA), USA, and Sir Visvesvaraya award.